By Bec Wonders

Southall Black Sisters, The Nia Project and FiLiA have partnered up to facilitate a 3-day weekend of sisterhood for young women and girls aged 11-17 in the UK, to provide a safe space for young women and girls to express themselves and their needs. We are informed by the importance of women-only spaces, the political significance of defending young women and girls’ fundamental rights, the necessity of organising along all three axes of race, sex, and class, and the importance of empowering young women and girls to recognise and use their leadership abilities. Our collaboration will provide an intervention and an escape for young women and girls from abusive situations by equipping them with support, skills and opportunities.

CONTEXT

When we think of the trajectory of historical improvements to the status of women in society, we often conjure up a one-dimensional narrative that begins at women’s suffrage, followed by equal pay, abortion and anti-discrimination legislation, and finally lands in the 21st Century haven of “not perfect but better than nothing” liberal ideals of equality between men and women.

Though there is some truth to this chronology, it overlooks the frustrating cycle of feminist progress: Advancements for women are made after long and difficult campaigns, temporarily appeasing tired and burnt-out feminist campaigners, after which revolutionary ideals of female liberation are forgotten to the next generation, leaving room for a renewed wave of patriarchal backlash. And the cycle repeats. Women’s gains, in other words, are not linear, and certainly never guaranteed.

And so, we find ourselves in 21st Century Britain, a time and place where, on the surface, things may appear rosy for women. Only 23% of Britons view inequality between men and women as a pressing problem, [1] girls are outperforming boys at school and women are more likely to enrol in higher education than men. [2] But it only takes looking at the personal experiences of young women and girls that it becomes clear that we indeed find ourselves in the last stage of the feminist progress cycle: vicious patriarchal backlash.

 

IMPACT

Some of the most alarming testimony of what it means to be a young woman or girl today is revealed when looking at their experiences of spending time online. A recent Girlguiding survey found that a shocking 80% of young women and girls aged 11-21 see or experience sexism online and on social media, a stark rise from 68% in 2018. [3] According to a Children’s Commissioner survey, 51% of young women and girls aged 16-21 are exposed to pornographic content involving someone they know in real life. [4] 30% of girls aged 11-16 are concerned with comparing themselves to others online as well as being preoccupied with how they look in photos on social media. [5] And 42% of young women of colour aged 17-21 (compared to 34% of young white women) are put off from pursuing certain jobs because of the abuse high profile women receive online.

Social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are also places where young women and girls experience each other’s company and participate in each other’s interests. Refusing to use any of these platforms may result in social ostracization or missing out on cultivating female friendships. And yet, as if by design, these spaces are precisely where girls are routinely exposed to sexism in the form of sexual harassment, pornography and highly sexualised beauty standards.

These harmful online experiences also have a huge impact on the type of discrimination and abuse young women and girls face offline. The proliferation of online pornography and the popularisation of influencers like Andrew Tate have led to the normalisation of misogyny and violence towards young women and girls. Given that a recent All-Party Parliamentary Group inquiry found that violence against women is prolific in mainstream pornography, [6] coupled with the finding that over a third of men watch pornography at least once a week, [7] it is no surprise that girls are significantly more likely than boys to have been subjected to a violent sex act. [4]

This effect has a disproportionate impact on Black and minoritised young women and girls who often find themselves hypersexualised. Not only is the word ‘black’ among the top 20 most frequent words used in titles of online pornography depicting sexual violence, Black women in pornography are also more likely to be the target of aggression compared to white women. [6] What this means for Black young women and girls in terms of accessing support is that they are frequently ‘adultified,’ not seen as victims or deemed complicit in their own abuse.

Despite the distressing reality of being a young woman or girl both online and offline today, there is energy and momentum to change the status quo. In 2020, for example, a group of young women started the website “Everyone’s Invited” which received over 3,000 anonymous testimonies from pupils in schools and colleges across the UK and Ireland that described experiences of sexual abuse, misogyny and harassment. The enormity of the problem that these young women had exposed led to multi-level police, government and school responses. In 2022, teenage girls led protests against a school in East London after a 15-year-old Black schoolgirl was strip-searched by police while at school. Consistently, young women and girls have shown their abilities to push back against systemic sexism, racism and classism in inspiring ways.

 

PROJECT LAUNCH

That’s where we come in: Southall Black Sisters, The Nia Project and FiLiA have partnered up to provide a safe space for young women and girls to express themselves and their needs. We are informed by the importance of women-only spaces, the political significance of defending young women and girls’ fundamental rights, the necessity of organising along all three axes of race, sex, and class, and the importance of empowering young women and girls to recognise and use their leadership abilities.

Many young women and girls who are working class, in care, gang-affiliated or sexually exploited are often left without adequate support during the school holidays. The length of summer holidays in particular poses a heightened risk that these young women and girls will seek a sense of belonging in a hypersexualised world. Overcoming classist, racist or sexist realities through the grandiose promises of the sex trade is promoted as a solution that many vulnerable young women and girls pursue, or are coerced into, if left without contact from a safety and support network.

Recognising this problem, we put our heads together and decided to do something about it. Last summer, The Nia Project offered young women and girls and their female carers a day of feminist activities and fun communal projects to take part in. The feedback from the attendees was overwhelmingly positive, with many young women remarking that it was the first time they had learned about feminism, followed by eager requests to host such an event more regularly. As one attendee remarked, “I took away a strong sense of empowerment which left me feeling more aware and confident in place as a woman in this world.”

Our collaboration will provide an intervention and an escape for young women and girls from abusive situations by equipping them with support, skills and opportunities. Consultations will be undertaken with young women and girls who access the services of The Nia Project and Southall Black Sisters, and a live consultation will be undertaken with young women and girls who attend the 2023 FiLiA conference in Glasgow.

With input and direction from young women and girls aged 11-17 in the UK, we will facilitate a 3-day weekend of sisterhood and solidarity in summer 2023. This will primarily be informed by what the young women and girls tell us they want and need, along with the expertise of the specialist partners. Some of the discussions will be guided by the newly piloted Best Friend’s Handbook: a booklet by Ali Morris and Joanne Payton written for girls to help their friends in abusive or difficult situations, including guidance on complex issues such as body image and family relationships.

Most of all, this collaborative effort is a reminder that the feminist struggle is not over and that we need to keep supporting and learning from new generations of women and girls in order to build the kind of collaborative feminist world that will bring an end to male violence once and for all.

Dr. Bec Wonders is a Research Associate at the University of Oxford specialising in second wave feminist history. She is also a freelance typesetter, illustrator and textile artist. Her work can be found at www.becwonders.com.

 

References

[1] Duffy, B., Murkin, G., Hewlett, K., Benson, R., & Hesketh, R. Inequalities around the globe: what the world sees as most serious. 2021. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/149731100/inequalities_around_the_globe_final.pdf

 

[2] Equality and Human Rights Commission. Is Britain Fairer? The State of Equality and Human Rights. 2018. https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/is-britain-fairer-accessible.pdf

 

[3] Girlguiding. Girls’ Attitudes Survey. 2022. https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/globalassets/docs-and-resources/fundraising-and-partnerships/uk-snapshot-gas-2022.pdf

 

[4] Children’s Commissioner. ‘A lot of it is actually just abuse:’ Young people and pornography. 2023. https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/cc-a-lot-of-it-is-actually-just-abuse-young-people-and-pornography-updated.pdf

 

[5] Girlguiding. Girls’ Attitudes Survey. 2017. https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/globalassets/docs-and-resources/research-and-campaigns/girls-attitudes-survey-2017.pdf

 

[6] All-Party Parliamentary Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation. Pornography regulation: The case for Parliamentary reform. 2023. https://www.appg-cse.uk/inquiry/

 

[7] YouGov. How often do Britons watch porn? 2022. https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2022/07/01/how-often-do-britons-watch-porn